SHOCKER: Baltia Is Rebranding As USGlobal Airways, And Has A New Business Plan (Again)

In 2014 I first wrote about Baltia Air Lines, which is America’s oldest startup airline. They’ve been in “business” for almost 30 years, except they’ve never actually flown a commercial flight, despite having owned a 747-200 for over 20 years (which they finally dumped last year, after hiring a consultant who told them it might not be the ideal plane with which to launch an airline — who would’ve thought?!).

Their business plan was initially to fly between New York and St. Petersburg, Russia, with plans to later expand to other European capitals. For years Baltia has been pretending that they’re actually going to start flying some day soon. Bizarrely enough, some people actually believed it, as the airline had a market cap of $70 million in 2014.

After this shakeup, the airline came up with a new business plan. Rather than flying a 747 between New York and Eastern Europe, they’d instead become a regional airline within the United States, and fly between BALtimore, Trenton, Islip, and Albany.

Well, yesterday recordonline.com ran a story more about the future of Baltia. A board meeting is happening this Thursday, and during this time they plan to vote on some things. Most importantly:

Baltia Air Lines plans to change their name to USGlobal Airways Inc.

Baltia is planning a reverse split of their stock

These changes are said to provide “a new identity moving forward” and “enhance the acceptability and marketability”

I know what you guys are thinking — this airline is a joke and can’t be trusted. But that’s not true, guys. 30 years into this project, Baltia’s VP of corporate communications insists this is now starting to become a real airline:

“In the last six months, the company has put together a new team with aviation backgrounds and is really moving forward,″ said John Lampl, vice president of corporate communications and part of that new team. “It’s starting to become a real airline.”

At the moment their business plan involves operating flights from Stewart Airport in New York to underserved European cities:

The reorganized airline wants to fly to unserved or underserved European cities from Stewart. Lampl said destination specifics won’t be finalized until Baltia’s FAA certification is in hand but added the company’s chairman, president and CEO, Anthony Koulouris, will expand on this subject at a press conference following Thursday’s board meeting.

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About luckyBen Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector. He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences. He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

Anyone who invests in this would be dumb as rocks. You cant launch an airline with a fleet of 1 widebody aircraft in which boeing may just end the program with soon enough.

But what’s even worse, how the hell has one person been there for 30 years and not leave the company? There’s no tangible business that he would get paid on! Makes no sense. Unless the “airline” is just a way for someone to launder dirty money.

There are lots of enterprises like this. Their “business” is selling stock to gullible investors and then using the money to pay their salaries. The elderly, immigrants are all fodder. The problem is that if they don’t lie but are just a terrible business proposition then there isn’t that much the SEC can do. It’s up to the investor to read the materials and run as fast as they can away from the deal. Unfortunately a lot of people do neither.

Even when there is a clear violation the SEC moves very slowly. There are blatant frauds that went on for years before finally being shut down.

The name change seems inorder if they want to target other markets that eastern europe. Baltia sounds appealing to an eastern europe market and i guess they just proved that market model is a cropper. USGlobal Sounds more appealing to the new market..

For anyone who actually wanted the news conference, it was sad. Orange County’s Economic Counsel and Executive Leadership are really excited — talked about a waterfall of job creation and influx of dollars to the County. Really just hope Balt — err — USGLOBAL doesn’t drop the ball.

Once again, Lucky, you’ve written an article that has false information in it: “After this shakeup, the airline came up with a new business plan. Rather than flying a 747 between New York and Eastern Europe, they’d instead become a regional airline within the United States, and fly between BALtimore, Trenton, Islip, and Albany.”

The company has never stated anything remotely close to that. You’re taking fake news from a stock forum and posting it here, which seems to be quite ignorant of reality.

You should be aware that Tony Koulouris and the team of successful entrepreneurs have created an entirely new company in USGlobal Airways. It has absolutely nothing to do with the company known as Baltia, that possibly defrauded tens of millions of $ from gullible investors. Absolutely NOT! This is a whole new company….capiche! You will be the BIGLY loser if you don’t buy shares immediately!

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About Lucky

Ben Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector. He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences. He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

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